Busy sports day yesterday. Pujols, Wilson and all that. The Hardball Times offers a recap (and they did a fine job covering the meetings).
The Yanks are layin’ in the cut, though they have reportedly made a one-year offer to pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. Also, Mariano Rivera is okay after having surgery on his vocal chords.
Over in the NBA, a nixed trade (gas face0; Tyson Chandler to the Knicks? Dwight Howard: Brooklyn’s Finest?
Plenty to schmooze about. Have at it.
[Photo Credit: David Bekerman]
Let’s all agree that before you write an article about trading Jesus Montero for a starting pitcher, that starting pitcher needs to be better than current free agent C.J. Wilson.
For the last two years, C.J. Wilson has been better than Gio Gonzalez in almost every way. Wilson pitched more innings, kept balls in the park at a better rate and walked fewer batters. They whiffed guys at close to the same rate, but Gonzalez jumped up in 2011 to claim a slight edge. That’s in raw numbers. When you look at the home road splits, it becomes clear we are talking about two different animals. Wilson is stellar outside the harsh environs of the Ballpark in Arlington. Gonzalez is ordinary once removed from Oakland and its acres of foul territory.
The main knock against Wilson is that he has walked 167 men in the last two years. Gonzalez has issued 183 free passes in 25 fewer innings.
Gio Gonzalez is five years younger than C.J. Wilson and still under team control for several years. His explosion in strikeouts in 2011 bodes well for his future. Those are huge points in his favor, no doubt. He’s projectible and cheap and certainly may be better than C.J. Wilson in a few years when Wilson gets older and Gonzalez is in his prime. But Jesus Montero is under team control for six more years. Which sounds better, Jesus Montero for six years and C.J. Wilson for whatever it takes to sign him? Or Gio Gonzalez for four years and whatever bat they have to sign to replace Jesus Montero?
The Yankees are not making headlines during the Hot Stove season, so the writers are left to make their own heat. Hey, I’d love to see Gio Gonzalez at the back end of the staff while he tries to get those walks down and learns to pitch to Death Valley in Yankee Stadium. But not at the cost of six years of a bat like Montero’s. Not when a better version of the same pitcher can be obtained on the free agent market.
Before long, Albert Pujols will agree to a long contract worth a whack of cash. The Marlins? The Cards? I still figure he’ll stay in St. Louis but would enjoy seeing Pujols shaked things up and head to Ozzieland in Miami.
Meanwhile, the Yanks play Take My A.J., please.
Here’s Yankee GM Brian Cashman at the Winter Meetings:
“It’s just hard to find a match — and it feels like it’s harder now than ever,” Cashman said. “You don’t see those old-school 7 to 11-player deals; you don’t see stuff like that anymore. I think people are smarter and therefore more careful. This isn’t the old seat-of-the-pants, get drunk in the lobby and write names on the napkin. People don’t conduct business that way any more.”
Banuelos and Betances aren’t the only players the Yankees have received calls on, as Cashman said he’s had offers for pretty much every player without a no-trade clause other than Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson.
“All those guys are either future high performers or currently high performers, they’re under control and they’re cheap,” Cashman said of the group that includes Brett Gardner, Dave Robertson, Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova. “It’s, ‘Hey, take my older, expensive, over-the-hill guy for your young, better-performing guy.’ I’m like, ‘Let me think about that and get back to you.’ ”
Not much to do but wait out the worms and see what happens.
